


we’re speaking in bodies

by buckybunnyteeth



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Dorks in Love, M/M, Muscles, flashvibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 09:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6513583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybunnyteeth/pseuds/buckybunnyteeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry notices very suddenly that Cisco is, well, buffer than usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we’re speaking in bodies

“He was smoking hot. As in H-O-T-T, hott. I’d never understood until that moment why girls insisted on adding an extra t. This guy was extra-t-worthy.”   
― Wendy Higgins, Sweet Evil

 

Barry notices very suddenly that Cisco is, well, buffer than usual. 

They are working together in Cisco’s lab, and by working together he obviously means that he is watching Cisco build something while he sits there and reads a scientific paper like a normal non speedy person. Music is playing lowly from the corner, some new band that Barry hasn’t heard of, and they are both munching on cake pops, when it happens.

The only warning Barry gets is Cisco’s little ‘ _whoops_ ’ before he is lifting the bottom hem of his t-shirt to wipe motor oil off of his face. The movement catches Barry’s attention, he looks up and gets a view of Cisco’s very much unexpected abs. Abs, not as defined as his or Oliver’s but very much a set of really, really nice looking abdominal muscles. Cisco shifts again and the shirt goes higher showing off his pectorals which look a lot firmer than Barry was expecting.

He feels the sudden an intense desire to lick up from the hem of Cisco’s jeans to his collarbone. 

“Boy howdy!” Barry says without thinking, jolting half way up out of his chair.

“Huh?” Cisco asks, dropping the shirt halfway to look over at Barry.

“Oh, n-nothing,” Barry stumbles turning back to his papers as a flush creeps up over his cheeks, “Just, uh, really exciting scientific endeavors happening right now!”

He glances back up to see Cisco frowning at him before he grins, all sunshine.

“You’re weird,” He chuckles, making the words sound like a compliment before he turns back to his machine-doohickey.

Barry stares at the way his shirt is folded up over the top of his jeans, exposing a penny sized patch of skin. He stares until Caitlin comes in and begs him to run and get them lunch. 

 

The images of Cisco’s shiny new muscles linger in his mind, popping in at random moments. When he’s about to fall asleep, in the middle of talking to Joe, when he’s punching some meta-human in the face. Is like they’re haunting him. Cisco’s muscles are haunting him.

Now when he is in the same room as the other man he can’t keep his eyes from tracking down his body wondering how he missed this change in Cisco. He usually keeps himself pretty hidden, dressing in layers despite the sunny nature of Central City. So Barry has never really had a good read on what Cisco’s body looked like.

Until now, that is.

Now sitting in the lab Barry can barely keep his blush under control as Cisco leans in front of him to explain something. Today instead of wearing a flannel as a layer he’s got it buttoned up across his chest and rolled up his arms. The cotton doesn’t hang off of him like usual, it clings around the firmness of his chest and the shape of his arms. His arms. God how has Barry never noticed his arms. 

Cisco is definitely toned.

Is driving Barry out of his mind.

He’s always had a thing for muscular guys. Well, muscular people in general. Not like overly jacked guys like Schwarzenegger back in the day, but people who are toned. People who can move him around bed. Which is why he had a small crush on Oliver. And on Eddie. And Diggle. And Sara when he briefly met her (my god the abs on that woman). And- well Barry is used to small crushes on muscular people flitting in and out of his life. 

And now with every subtle shift of Cisco’s arms under that tight green flannel shirt Barry can feel a new crush taking root. Or rather, an old crush getting a turbo boost.

“-Bro? Barry are you listening to me?”

Barry’s eyes snap up from Cisco’s very nice arms to meet his very nice eyes.

“Wh- yeah! Yeah of course I am, dude.”

Cisco raises and eyebrow at him, frowns at Barry’s nervous giggle, and then turns back to the screen to continue explaining … whatever he was talking about.

And Barry goes right back to day dreaming about Cisco’s arms.

Because he is _fucked_.

 

“Hey, has Cisco been, I dunno, working out or something?”

Caitlin looks up from where she is resetting his leg that he broke while trying to stop a meta with Slime producing powers. She raises an eye brow at him and he looks away from her gaze before he starts to blush.

“I just-uh, I notice his-um.”

“Increased musculature?”

Ok, there’s the blush.

Caitlin grins at him as she snaps his leg into place.

“He’s been staying after hours and using the gym upstairs,” She tells him softly, “I think he wants to be ready in case he needs to put on a cape.”

Barry raises an eyebrow this time.

“Metaphorically of course. Capes aren’t really conducive to none flying superheroes, and then not all flying superheroes as was evident with Firestorm-“

Barry drifts off from listening to her as Cisco enters the cortex over her shoulder. Today he is wearing a pair of dark, very snug jeans and a very bright, very fitted tee. As Barry is watching Cisco drops a pen and bends over to pick it up, giving a very nice view that’s sends the heart monitor Barry is hooked up to haywire.

Caitlin glares at him and yanks the electrodes off his chest.

“Ow!”

“Not in my lab and not on your life, Barry.”

“Okay, sorry. But-wait. How did you-“

“You’re about as subtle as a six foot two man speeding around the city in a red leather suit. Oh wait.”

She leaves him alone and sends Cisco in to ‘fix the busted monitor’ aka ‘to torture Barry some more’.

 

Barry resolves not to do anything with this new crush. It’s his default survival tactic, and it has worked for him in the past.

And he goes on calling it a new crush when it really, really isn’t.

See Barry has had a crush on Cisco pretty much since he put on that god awful red spandex jump suit and Cisco laughed at him like he was the biggest dork in the world. Cisco’s smile, it just shines in a way that pulls Barry in. From there as Barry got to know the other guy the crush only grew stronger. Those who dork together flock together and he and Cisco just seemed to always end up at each other’s side. 

But it had been a smaller crush next to the big crush labeled; _Iris West first (enacted in 1999)_. He had barely the time to register it let alone let himself feel it.

And since he and Iris had matured and realized that whatever might happen between them wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, Barry had started noticing him crush on Cisco. It had been a soft, kind of Dorky, ‘ _oh, you’re cute_ ’ kind of deal.

Now though.

Now Barry is waking up from dirty dreams that feature Cisco and _sleeveless shirts_. 

He can’t look Cisco in the eye some days because of the dirty gymnastics that he dreamed about the night before. He’s pretty sure that his friends all think he is hiding something, and it’s confirmed when Harry corners him one day after a spectacular session of looking anywhere but at Cisco in all his tight shirted glory.

“Cut it out,” Harry snaps as he advances on Barry in the deserted lab. 

“What? I don’t-”

“People from Earth-2 can see what’s happening between you and Ramon. So either cut it out and get over it, or fuck him already and put us all out of our misery!”

Barry’s hand flies to his neck to clutch his metaphorical pearls as he splutters in reply.

“I-well that’s just- excuse me for-“

“Fix it or fuck him, Allen,” Harry growls as he stomps out of the room, “And don’t you dare tell me about which option you choose, or so help me god I will superglue you into your stupid suit.”

Barry stands there spluttering well after Harry has disappeared. 

 

The whole situation comes to a head about a month after Barry first noticed Cisco’s new … buffness. Barry, after a few heart to hearts with Joe, decides that he should throw caution to the wind and just ask the guy out.

He runs over to STAR Labs after hours and walks to the gym at normal speed. 

“Hey, Cisco I was-“

He stops dead in the doorway when he catches sight of Cisco through the machines.

“- _oh my gosh_.”

Cisco steps back from the punching bag and pulls a bud out of his ear.

“Barry,” he says with a grin and a breathless voice, “Hi. I thought you went home?”

“I did. I actually came back to talk to you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

This would be so much easier if Cisco didn’t look so god damn good. He’s wearing sweats and a sleeveless shirt that has slit sides, showing off the barest tease of his stomach. His hair is fluffy and loose, and his skin is luminous with a thin sheen of sweat that should not be attractive but is. His hands are wrapped in blue tape to support them while he punches, and even that is doing something for Barry. 

“I, uh,” Barry sits back on a bench so he can look down and hide his blush, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Alright.”

Cisco wipes his face off with a towel and saunters over to stand in front of Barry, concerned frown on his face. He flicks his hand around in a motion for Barry to continue. 

“I was just wondering,” Barry takes a fortifying deep breath, “If you would like to go out. With me, specifically. On a date type thing. With me. Barry.”

His fumbling only gets worse as Cisco stays quiet and continues to stare at him. 

“-I mean it’s totally cool if you don’t want to. I mean I want you to want to! But I can also see that this is probably coming out of nowhere for you and asking you on a date in the middle of a nighttime workout probably isn’t the coolest thing in hindsight, oh my god why can’t I stop-“

“You know,” Cisco interrupts him, voice and face giving away nothing, “I was actually beginning to think I was imagining things.”

“What?” Barry asks softly.

He watches as Cisco steps closer to him. Feels himself shiver as he runs his eyes slowly up Barry’s body. 

“I mean,” Cisco chuckles with a grin, “I’ve been wearing ridiculously tight clothes for weeks, waiting for you to snap and do something.”

“Wha-you knew?!”

“You’re not exactly subtle, Bear,” Cisco chuckles, standing practically toe to toe with Barry now, “Caitlin was complaining about you drooling on her equipment. Plus last week when I wore that button up you walk into three nonconsecutive walls.”

Barry snorts and hides his face.

“Oh my god.”

“It was pretty flattering, dude.”

“Flattering enough to get me a date?”

Cisco bites his lip to hide a smile.

“I dunno,” Cisco teases, “A little more flattery wouldn’t go astray.”

Barry’s grin turns into a soft smile and he reaches out to hold both of Cisco’s hands.

“It’s not a new thing,” He confesses softly, “I hope you don’t think it’s because of the-”

“Beefy-ness?”

They both break out into giggles.

“I’m being serious, dude!” Barry laughs up at him, “Ever since I woke up from my coma you’ve been there. Like, instantly you were my best friend. I hadn’t met many people who could science me under the table and it was … endearing. I got a crush on you pretty instantly, and everything that’s happened lately just made me realize I wanted more than a crush with you. I wanted-want … to be your boyfriend. If you’ll have me.”

Cisco looks down at him for a long quiet moment, eyes wide and face unreadable. 

Just after Barry has started to panic he moves, hands dropping Barry’s to come up and grip his shoulders. Before Barry can splutter out a question Cisco leans forwards and slips on to Barry’s lap, legs resting against the bench either side of his thighs. He sits down firmly in Barry’s lap while his arms wind around his neck and he leans their foreheads together.

To say that it punched the wind out of Barry’s chest would be an understatement. 

“You know,” Cisco says softly in the space between them, eyes sparkling, “it’s not just my upper body muscles that have gotten stronger.”

“N-no?”

“Hmmm,” Cisco hums, lips dangerously close to his own, “I’ve been taking kickboxing classes on the weekend. Building up the strength in my legs.”

Barry’s hands run up his thighs, feeling the firm muscle under the soft grey fabric and making Cisco grin.

“So?”

“So I could sit, right here, in your lap for literal hours.”

He shifts closer making Barry gasp in a very wonderful way.

“Or maybe not right here,” Cisco chuckles, one of his hands shifting to run through Barry’s hair, “Maybe somewhere else. Somewhere more … private.”

A thousand thoughts run through Barry’s head about Cisco and his muscles and his new found confidence and his amazing voice and his muscles. And then a tiny bead of doubt edges in.

“You don’t want to go on a date first?” He asks in a whisper.

“I’ve quoted Wrath of Khan to you a billion times, dude. It’s basically nerd for I love you, let’s make sweet space love. You can date me later.”

“I just want to make sure you’re sure.”

The heat dulls in Cisco’s eyes for a moment and morphs into a familiar look. It says that they’ve known each other for so long, trust each other with everything and live pretty dangerous lives that could end badly for them at any moment. 

“I’m sure,” Cisco says before shifting down to drag his lips over Barry’s earlobe, “Take me home, Bear.”

The only reason he doesn’t break the sound barrier on the run over to Cisco’s apartment is because he is too distracted by the hot mouth sucking hickeys onto his neck and the amazingly firm thighs wrapped around his waist.

He is _so_ glad that STAR Labs has a gym.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for @flashsvibe over on Tumblr who wanted Barry noticing Cisco's new muscles and he can't help but stare.


End file.
